UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

The correct answer is National Film Development Corporation. NFDC, which works under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, runs the India Cine Hub as a digital single-window portal where domestic and international creators apply for filming permissions, film visas and co-production approvals. The portal integrates State-level systems, provides a common form for States without online processing, and offers a GIS-based directory of locations and permit authorities.

The other bodies have different jobs, which is how the question tests you. The Central Board of Film Certification certifies films for public exhibition. The Film and Television Institute of India in Pune trains filmmakers. Prasar Bharati is the public broadcaster that runs Doordarshan and All India Radio. NFDC, set up in 1975 to promote Indian cinema, also co-produces films and hosts Film Bazaar with the International Film Festival of India in Goa.

The correct answer is Statue of Unity. Ashwini Vaishnaw said Ekta Nagar has gained recognition across the world as a highly attractive destination because it is home to the world's tallest statue, that of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He argued that when the President of India and leading film personalities visit such a place for the National Film Awards, more people learn about and experience the destination, which is the whole point of pairing the awards with tourism.

The other three are famous Gujarat sites but in different places: Sabarmati Ashram is Gandhi's ashram in Ahmedabad, Rani ki Vav is the UNESCO-listed stepwell at Patan, and Somnath Temple stands on the Saurashtra coast. Ekta Nagar is the township at Kevadia, on the Narmada, named for the "Statue of Unity" that rises beside the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

The correct answer is National Film Awards. The Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting said the National Film Awards are being taken to India's best tourist destinations, inspired by the Prime Minister's approach of holding national events beyond conventional venues, much as G20 meetings were spread across States. He invited all States to propose their best tourism destination, with facilities and a plan for 360-degree development, and the selected State will host the next awards there.

The other awards are distractors from different fields: the Padma Awards are civilian honours announced on Republic Day eve, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards are for performing arts, and the National Sports Awards honour athletes and coaches. The film awards are presented by the President, which is why Vaishnaw pointed out that the President and the film industry visiting a destination such as Ekta Nagar would draw attention to it.

The correct answer is 4%. Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan noted that India accounts for about 2.4 per cent of the world's land area and 18 per cent of its population, while possessing only about 4 per cent of global freshwater resources. That mismatch is why he said India's water use cannot be compared with countries that have far more water and far fewer people, and why he asked citizens to adopt simple habits such as closing the tap while brushing.

The other numbers are lifted from the same sentence to confuse: 2.4% is India's share of the world's land, 18% is its share of population, and 10% is a distractor. These three figures appear in almost every Indian water-policy document, so learn them as a trio: 2.4% land, 18% people, 4% freshwater.

The correct answer is Sustainable Urban River Management (SURM) Framework. At the inauguration on 22 September 2026, the Vice-President launched the SURM Framework along with an AI/ML-driven Integrated Reservoir Sediment Management system, described as steps towards technology-enabled and climate-resilient water management. Urban river management matters because most Indian cities have turned their rivers into drains, and sediment management decides how long reservoirs keep their storage capacity.

The other options are made to sound official. There was no National Water Policy launched at the event; Atal Bhujal is an existing groundwater scheme, not a framework launched here; and Namami Gange is the Ganga programme, with no "3.0" announced. Read launch questions carefully: the name of the document and the launching dignitary are usually what is tested.

The correct answer is Climate Resilient Water Management. The 9th India International Water Week, organised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, from 22 to 26 September 2026, is centred on this theme. Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan inaugurated it on 22 September and said climate change, rapid urbanisation and population growth are making water management more complex, calling for river-basin management, groundwater recharge, rainwater harvesting and efficient irrigation.

The distractors are plausible slogans. "Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari" is real but different: it is the Prime Minister's call for a mass movement on water conservation, which the Vice-President quoted in his speech. The other two are generic phrases in the style of international water-day themes. Themes change with every edition, so tie this one to the 9th edition and 2026.

The correct answer is C-DAC. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing showcased its AUM HPC-AI processor and the RUDRA-AUM compute node, reflecting India's push to build indigenous capability in high-performance computing and AI at the system level, not just the chip level. C-DAC also displayed its indigenous 64-bit RISC-V processor, built on the open RISC-V architecture, which powers products such as Aheesa Technology's 1 Gbps connectivity device.

ISRO builds satellites and launch vehicles, DRDO develops defence systems and BEL is a defence electronics manufacturer; none of them made these processors. C-DAC, under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, is India's supercomputing agency, known for the PARAM series, which is why it leads the processor work. Other Indian names at the show included InCore Semiconductors for RISC-V processor IP and Netrasemi for AI surveillance chips.

The correct answer is ₹1,27,500 crore. Semicon 2.0 was approved by the Union Cabinet in July 2026 with this outlay. It builds on Semicon 1.0 and rests on six pillars: design; machines and materials; more fabs; advanced packaging; research and development; and talent development. The broader approach, covering the whole value chain rather than fabrication alone, was the point of the "Silicon to Systems" theme.

₹1.64 lakh crore is the trap: that is the investment commitment already made under the Semicon India Programme, across 12 approved projects in six States, three of which are in commercial production. ₹76,000 crore was the outlay of the original programme, and ₹1 lakh crore is a round-number distractor. Keep the two 2026 figures apart: ₹1,27,500 crore is the new government outlay, ₹1.64 lakh crore is investment committed by companies.

The correct answer is Yashobhoomi, New Delhi. The fifth edition of SEMICON India ran there for three days, from 17 to 19 September 2026, on the theme "Silicon to Systems: Building the Ecosystem", with more than 600 exhibiting companies, a Start-up Pavilion, a Workforce Development Pavilion, country and State pavilions and a hackathon.

Bharat Mandapam is the tempting wrong answer because it is Delhi's other big convention centre and hosted several 2026 events, including the India International Water Week that opened on 22 September. Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar hosts Vibrant Gujarat, and BIEC in Bengaluru hosts Aero India. Yashobhoomi, in Dwarka, is the India International Convention and Expo Centre in the capital's west. Keep the venue and theme together for this one.

The correct answer is All senior citizens aged 70 and above. On 11 September 2024 the Government extended AB PM-JAY to everyone aged 70 and above, regardless of income, covering about 6 crore senior citizens. They receive the Ayushman Vay Vandana card, and more than 1.36 crore such cards had been issued by 21 September 2026.

ASHA workers are the distractor: about 37 lakh families of ASHAs, anganwadi workers and helpers were indeed added, but earlier, in March 2024, and through a separate decision. Construction workers join through the Building and Other Construction Workers boards, and students are not a category at all. The name is easy to place: "Vay" refers to age, so the Vay Vandana card is the one for the elderly.

The correct answer is Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011. Rural families qualify under six deprivation criteria of the SECC 2011, such as households with only one kucha room, no adult member between 16 and 59, female-headed households without an adult male, households with a disabled member, SC/ST households and landless households dependent on casual manual labour. Urban families qualify under 11 occupational categories, from rag pickers and domestic workers to construction workers and drivers.

Census 2011 is the tempting wrong answer: the SECC was a separate exercise from the population census. The National Family Health Survey is a health survey, not an eligibility list, and Aadhaar is an identity number, not a poverty database. Families once covered under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana are included too.

The correct answer is ₹5 lakh. AB PM-JAY provides cashless hospitalisation cover of up to ₹5 lakh per family per year, covering 1,961 procedures across 27 medical specialties at public and private empanelled hospitals. The cover is per family, not per person, and there is no cap on family size or age.

The other amounts are distractors. The scale of use is worth remembering: by its eighth anniversary the scheme had funded about 13.25 crore hospital admissions worth ₹2.03 lakh crore, and over 48.51 crore people, about 33% of the population, held Ayushman cards. The Union Budget for 2026-27 provides ₹9,500 crore for it. A typical example in the backgrounder is a 65-year-old woman from Haryana whose hip surgery costing ₹44,140 was done free under the scheme.

The correct answer is 23 September 2018. AB PM-JAY was launched on that date to move India towards universal health coverage, and the PIB backgrounder of 22 September 2026 marks its eighth anniversary. It gives eligible families cashless hospital cover of up to ₹5 lakh a year for secondary and tertiary care through more than 38,000 empanelled hospitals.

The other dates are distractors around well-known days: 15 August is Independence Day, 2 October is Gandhi Jayanti and 1 April is the start of the financial year. Two later dates matter for this scheme and are worth keeping separate: March 2024, when about 37 lakh families of ASHAs and anganwadi workers were added, and 11 September 2024, when all senior citizens aged 70 and above were brought in through the Ayushman Vay Vandana card.

The correct answer is once. The Preamble has been amended only one time, by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976. That amendment added three words: "Socialist" and "Secular" to the description of India, and "Integrity" to the phrase "unity and integrity of the Nation".

"Never" is wrong because the 1976 change is on record; it is also why the Preamble as quoted today differs from the text adopted on 26 November 1949, which described India only as a "sovereign democratic republic". "Twice" and "three times" confuse the number of amendments with the number of words added, which is three. Keep the two numbers apart: one amendment, three words. The fact that the Preamble can be amended at all was settled by the Supreme Court in the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973), which held that it is a part of the Constitution and can be amended so long as its basic features are not destroyed.

The correct answer is N.A. Palkhivala. Nani Ardeshir Palkhivala, one of India's most eminent jurists and constitutional lawyers, called the Preamble the "identity card of the Constitution", because it tells us in one sentence what the Constitution is, where its authority comes from and what it sets out to achieve.

The other names are linked to different descriptions, and examiners use them precisely because they sound right. K.M. Munshi, a member of the Drafting Committee, called the Preamble the "political horoscope" of the sovereign democratic republic. Sir Ernest Barker, the British political scientist, described it as the "key-note" of the Constitution. Dr B.R. Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee, and his best-known description is of Article 32, which he called the heart and soul of the Constitution. Learn these as pairs, because questions often give the phrase and ask for the person, or the other way round.

The correct answer is A guiding principle for interpretation. The Preamble is not enforceable in a court of law: it is neither a source of power for the legislature nor a limit on its powers. Its main legal use is as an aid to interpretation. When the meaning of a provision of the Constitution is unclear, courts look to the Preamble to understand the objectives the framers had in mind.

The other options describe things the Preamble is not. It is not a schedule: the Constitution's schedules are separate lists placed at the end of the text, such as the list of languages. It is not a financial guideline. And it is not an enforceable part of law, which is the most tempting wrong answer: even after the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973) held that the Preamble is a part of the Constitution, it remained non-justiciable. Being part of the Constitution and being enforceable in court are two different things, and this question tests exactly that difference.

The correct answer is the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973). In the Berubari Union case of 1960 the Supreme Court had said that the Preamble is not a part of the Constitution, though it is a key to the minds of its makers. In Kesavananda Bharati the Court rejected that view and held that the Preamble is a part of the Constitution and can be amended, provided its basic features are not changed.

The Berubari Union case is the earlier decision that was reversed, so it cannot be the answer. The LIC of India case of 1995 came later and only reaffirmed that the Preamble is an integral part of the Constitution; it did not reverse anything. The Golaknath case of 1967 concerned Parliament's power to amend Fundamental Rights, not the status of the Preamble. The word "reverse" in the question is the clue: it points to the case that overturned Berubari, which is Kesavananda Bharati.

The correct answer is the Russian Revolution. The ideal of justice in the Preamble, described as social, economic and political, was inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1917, which is why books often list the former USSR as its source. It sits alongside the three objectives drawn from France.

The French Revolution is the source of liberty, equality and fraternity, the other three objectives, so it is the most tempting wrong answer. The American connection is to the idea of having a preamble at all, taken from the Constitution of the United States, not to the ideal of justice. The Magna Carta is a landmark of English constitutional history but is not the source of anything in the Preamble. A good way to remember the split: of the four objectives, justice points east, to Russia, while liberty, equality and fraternity point west, to France.

The correct answer is France. The ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity in the Preamble were taken from France, where they were the watchwords of the French Revolution. France is also the source of the idea of a republic.

The other options gave India different features. The United Kingdom is the source of parliamentary government, the rule of law, the cabinet system and single citizenship. Canada gave the idea of a federation with a strong Centre and residuary powers vested in the Centre. Ireland gave the Directive Principles of State Policy and the method of electing the President. The ideal of justice in the Preamble, the fourth of its objectives, has a different source again: the Russian Revolution. So of the four objectives, three (liberty, equality and fraternity) trace to France and one (justice) traces to the former USSR, a split that examiners like to test.

The correct answer is United States of America. The idea of beginning a constitution with a preamble was borrowed from the Constitution of the USA, whose own text opens with the words "We the People". The content of India's Preamble, however, comes from Jawaharlal Nehru's Objectives Resolution, moved in the Constituent Assembly on 13 December 1946 and adopted on 22 January 1947.

The other countries are sources of different parts of the Preamble or of the Constitution. The USSR is the source of the ideal of social, economic and political justice. Britain gave parliamentary government, the rule of law and single citizenship. Canada gave the model of a federation with a strong Centre. Be careful to separate two different questions that look alike: the idea of having a preamble came from the USA, while the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity written inside it came from the French Revolution.